


Cruelty

by JustBeforeTheDawn



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bad Writing, Dubious Consent, F/M, Meta, have the writers ever met a fucking human woman, i'm so angry right now, there's betty/archie but not really, what is their idea of trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:13:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23559661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustBeforeTheDawn/pseuds/JustBeforeTheDawn
Summary: Betty and Archie find themselves acting completely out of character
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Cruelty

**Author's Note:**

> the show is literally the worst written thing I've ever seen
> 
> anyway here's some meta on why it makes no fucking sense

_No, no,_ thinks Betty.

Something is making her move towards Archie, like she likes him, like there's some kind of romantic connection between them.

 _Why is this happening_? she thinks. It doesn't make any sense. She loves Jughead. She's loved Jughead for so long, done so much for him, and him for her. She doesn't want to be angry with him, that he's behaving weirdly after his near death experience. He nearly died! Of course he's finding it hard to re-adjust to the real world after everything tht happened. Of course he's retreating to something that makes sense to him. Why isn't she there, helping him? Why is she here, doing this, something she knows is repulsive?

Archie doesn't seem like he understands either (big change, huh?). In all the years that she's known him, all of his tomcatting and his many, many girlfriends, he's never been unfaithful, least of all to Veronica, who he loves desperately.

They were childhood friends. It means nothing to her, now she's older. A childhood fantasy of getting married is nonsense, immature, some idealised version of a happy housewife reality that she realises she never wanted in the first place. It's sexist, outdated, implausible for this to happen to her now. How could they have connected? They have barely talked over the year. They have almost nothing in common, no interests beyond a shared history. She wants Jughead to explore with her, to solve mysteries with her. She loves him, not this stupid idiot that history has attached her to.

She doesn't want it.

Jughead and Veronica. How can they do this to them? She is betraying her best friend, unforgiveably. She has never, ever been like this. She loves Jughead. When she thought he was going to die, she wanted to die. How could she suddenly go from that to this?

 _It doesn't make sense. It doesn't makes sense_ , her mind pleads, but she seems to be powerless to stop. Something seems to be controlling her actions, and something inside her breaks a little, weeps at the destruction this is wreaking on her character.

_I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it_

**Author's Note:**

> that's right guys, they made Hedwig about fucking straight people
> 
> what pisses me off even more is they had a whole half series to set this up. they had the perfect opportunity to show betty and jughead growing apart while physically distant, maybe show archie and betty getting closer while they're together and veronica is distracted by her never-ending daddy/business plotlines, show us something they have in common to make a relationship believable.
> 
> they did not do the work. it came out of the blue, and it makes both characters look like really unpleasant selfish people, which (for betty in particular) is completely out of character and destroys almost all of her development and motivation.
> 
> seriously. lili reinhart needs to be let out of the show, since they clearly don't give a fuck about her. let her take cole sprouse with her, and those male writers can just have their fucking teen fantasy where archie can get his dick wet with every woman in sight but still get the good girl at the end.
> 
> guess we finally know why betty's constantly slut-shamed and something terrible happens immediately after, every time she dares to have sex with the guy she's spent three series in love with - except that was all apparently a lie, and she's been pining the whole time?
> 
> fuck off back to the 1950s and take your portrayal of women with you you talent-free dicks


End file.
